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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 27 • 18 BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com Purdue retained its biggest piece and may have solidified itself as a Big Ten contender next season when center A.J. Hammons an- nounced Saturday that he'd return to the Boilermakers for his senior year. After Purdue introduced its 2015 Athletics Hall of Fame class at halftime of football's spring game, Hammons took the mic and an- nounced his decision to the crowd. "It's been a great three years," Hammons said, "and I'm coming back for my fourth." Viewed as a second-round NBA draft prospect, Hammons made his decision after soliciting feedback from the league's draft advisory committee for the second spring in a row. As a junior in 2014-15, Ham- mons was one of the driving forces behind Purdue's resurgent season, elevating his play midseason and riding it to a second-team All- Big Ten season and a spot on the league's All-Defense team for the second consecutive year. Had teammate Rapheal Davis not been named Big Ten Defensive Player-of-the-Year, it can be safely presumed that the league's leading shot-blocker and the centerpiece of one of the conference's best de - fenses (in Big Ten play) would have been. For the season — one in which he actually backed up freshman Isaac Haas for the bulk of non-con- ference play and into the league season — Hammons wound up averaging a team-best 11.9 points and leading the Boilermakers in rebounding, an area he'll look to assert himself in even more as a senior. He will project as a likely pre- season All-Big Ten pick and a pos- sible Big Ten Player-of-the-Year candidate. With Hammons back, Purdue will return all but point guard Jon Octeus among key players dur- ing its 21-win return-to-the-NCAA Tournament season, legitimiz- ing early projections that have the Boilermakers as a preseason top-25 sort of team. Purdue is ag- gressively recruiting immediately eligible point guards — fifth-year senior transfers among them — in hopes of offsetting Octeus' loss. With Hammons back, Purdue not only has one of the best cen- SCHEDULE UPDATE What we know about Purdue's nearly complete 2015-16 sched- ule: S Home: Games against Vanderbilt, New Mexico, Incarnate Word and Lehigh, along with Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic campus-site games against two of the following four teams: Buffalo, Niagara, Ver- mont and North Carolina A&T. S Road: Purdue's Big Ten/ACC Challenge game — the oppo- nent is yet to be determined — is almost certain to be played on the road. S Neutral: Games against Old Dominion and either Florida or St. Joseph's in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic in Connecticut, and Butler in the Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis. S Big Ten single-play opponents: Of those teams Purdue will play just once in the conference next season, it'll get Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern and Penn State at home and IU, Illinois, Minnesota and Rutgers on the road. — Brian Neubert M E N ' S BA S K E T BA L L : N E W S A N D N OT E S Tom Campbell A.J. Hammons announced at halftime of Purdue's spring game that he'd be returning to the Boilermakers for his senior season. vertime HAMMONS RETURNING FOR SENIOR SEASON